Campbell destroys Coyle; Rose beats Jones; Burns and Whyte both win

WBC #15 lightweight contender Luke Campbell (12-0, 10 KOs) totally dominated Tommy Coyle (21-3, 12 KOs) in knocking him down four times en route to scoring a 10th round stoppage tonight at the Craven Park Stadium in Hull, UK. Coyle was hurt with a body shot in the 9th, and then finished off with three knockdowns in the 10th. Coyle continually attacked the bigger and stronger Campbell, but he didn’t have the punching power to worry him.

Coyle did cause Campbell to fight at a faster pace than he normally had in the past, but he didn’t have the pop in his punches to get the victory.
Campbell looked good for the most part, but hardly the invincible fighter that many had thought he was going into the contest.

Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn predicted that he’ll be fighting for a world title by this time next year. Hearn also said that Campbell might be the best fighter in the lightweight division right now. Given that the lightweight division is pretty depleted now that Terence Crawford has moved up to 140, he might just be right. But if Crawford was still around, Campbell would be second best and would likely remain in that position as long as Crawford chose to fight in the division.

In the co-feature about, Brian Rose (27-4-1, 8 KOs) defeated American Carson Jones (37-11-3, 27 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. Jones hurt Rose in the 2nd round with a right to the head. However, Rose was able to make it out of the round somehow. Rose suffered a cut over the bridge of his nose in that round, and the cut would continue to bleed for the duration of the contest. The final judges’ scores were 119-111, 116-112, and 117-112.

Jones fought in spurts, and never seemed to be able to switch on his offense and keep it on. His trainer Abel Sanchez tried his best to encourage him to attack Rose in an all-out manner, but Jones couldn’t do it. Sanchez also trains WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, who has no problems following Sanchez’s instructions to the letter. Jones, for whatever reason, couldn’t do what Sanchez kept imploring to do by attacking Rose nonstop. Jones did land some nice shots on occasion, but he just couldn’t put enough shots together to get the win.

In the last four rounds, it was obvious that Jones needed a knockout to get the victory. But instead of concentrating his shots to the head of Rose, where he’s more vulnerable, Jones wasted a lot of time focusing on throwing body shots. That kind of thing would have been good early on in the fight to try and weaken Rose, but when it was late, Jones really needed to head hunt exclusively and he failed to do so.

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In the best performance on the card, undefeated heavyweight Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 KOs) demolished Irineu Beato Costa Junior (17 5, 15 KOs) by a 1st round knockout victory. Whyte put Costa Junior down twice in the 1st round with left hooks to the head. After the 2nd knockdown, Costa Junior was too hurt to get to his feet. The fight was then halted at 2:41 of the round.

The victory for Whyte now sets Whyte up for a big fight against unbeaten Matchroom Sport heavyweight Anthony Joshua later this year. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed that the fight is a done deal now, and all Joshua has to do is get past Gary Cornish on September 12th to get to the Whyte fight. Hearn didn’t seem all that excited about Whyte’s win over Costa Junior like he should have. In fact, Hearn looked nervous, as he should be.

If Whyte obliterates Joshua like he did Costa Junior tonight, he could wreck Hearn’s dreams of Joshua becoming the next big thing in the heavyweight division. Hearn has gotten really head of himself in seeing Joshua go onto greatness in the heavyweight division. The thing is Whyte already beat Joshua in the amateurs six years ago in knocking him down twice. If Joshua hasn’t improved enough since them, he may wind up losing again. What we do know is that Joshua couldn’t handle Whyte’s left hook back then.

Whyte’s left hook looks just as powerful now as it was back then. Joshua has gotten slower since he turned pro because he’s packed on 30 pounds of muscle in two years. The muscle hasn’t made Joshua faster, and it likely hasn’t helped his stamina any.

Lightweight Rick Burns (38-5-1, 12 KOs) finally won a fight in beating Prince Ofotsu (15-5, 11 KOs) by a 5th round stoppage. Ofotsu’s corner man threw in the towel in the 5th because he didn’t like how his fighter was performing. The fight was stopped at 1:43 of the round. Ofotsu just wasn’t letting his hands go, and he looked out of his class in the fight. While it was a strange stoppage, you can’t blame Ofotsu’s trainer for halting it because his fighter wasn’t following his directions. Burns came into the fight having lost 3 out of his last 4 fights.

This is obviously why he was matched against such a weak opponent. It’s unclear how long Hearn will choose to put Burns in with weak opposition. Burns is 32-years-old, and he can’t afford to be matched like a novice for long. It’s not doing him any good, and definitely not going to help Hearn or his Matchroom Sport stable.